Preface: My thanks to Kevin Dill for this ultra nifty way of tapering wooden shafts! Kevin, you da man! I've made just a few mods to the process Kev outlined, and the results have been absolutely fantastic! First off, here's a look at the jig I built ...

The base is just some scrap 3/4" Luan ply that's extremely flat and level. You can see the 1-1/2" aluminum angles, each 10" long. To the inside face of each angle I used double sided carpet tape to attach a strip of 120 grit sandpaper - I used some 9" x 11" sheets and cut them with a razor knife into 1-1/2" x 11" strips. I drilled each angle base with 3/8" holes and used 3/16" diameter x 3/4" long wood screws (with washers) to screw down the angles. Using 3/8" angle holes allows plenty of angle adjustment latitude. Now to set it all up ...

You MUST have a "model" tapered shaft you wish to clone! Loosely screw down the angles, slip a raw tapered shaft between the angles and squeeze the angles TIGHT. Holding the angles so they don't move, screw'em down TIGHT. With the model shaft held by the angles, get some 4" or so long pieces of scrap wood up against the parallel part of the shaft and nail'em down - these are guides that assure the shaft will run true through the tapering jig. Now we're ready to have some fun ...

Select a parallel shaft of the same parallel diameter as you used in setting up your jig. If you used an 11/32" tapered shaft as a model (which typically tapers to 5/16") make sure to use an 11/32" parallel shaft! It's really best to straighten the shaft before tapering! Turn a nock taper on one end. Clamp the jig down to a table (one "C" clamp on one side is more than enough). Chuck the point end of your shaft in a variable speed 3/8" electric hand drill - chuck it pretty TIGHT. Time to get down to tapering ...

Run the shaft through the guide "fence" and push it into the sandpaper faced aluminum angles. Go slowly, DON'T PUSH HARD, keep feeding it forward, keep the speed of the drill UP, use your free hand to make sure that the shaft doesn't rise up - touch it lightly as it's turning. You'll make a small hill of fine wood dust and in about 30 to 40 seconds the nock taper end of your shaft will emerge on the other side of the aluminum angles. Withdraw the shaft while it's still spinning. Voila! Perfection!

My first shaft (and my 24th shaft - yeah, I just tapered 2 dozen POC's!) came out baby butt smooth with NO lines or markings of any type. For this first batch I used 5/16" Kelly POC's and they tapered down to a perfect 9/32". Each shaft averaged a weight savings of 16 grains. For the next batch I'll loosen the angles and adjust them for some 11/32" POC's I have (this will require an adjustment to the wooden guide blocks as well - I intend to replace them with 5" lengths of adjustable 1-1/2" alum angle as well).